Mountain Town
by issekiwa
Summary: Ash Misty and Brock wander into a mysterious uncharted mountain town, complete with mysterious women who offer hospitality to the trainers. Misty sense's something's fishy, and it's up to her to find out what. But what are the consequences?
1. It Begins

Mountain Town  
  
Ash, Brock and Misty were walking on a wide path that entered a small town of about thirty houses. There were lush green fields surrounding most of the outer houses, dotted with miltank and the occasional pidgey. Large purple mountains surrounded the town, dropping sharply then sweeping gently on the green hills slowly descending into the valley floor on which the town was based. With the thick forest they had just come through behind them and the sun setting fast behind the mountains, they were more than eager to find a pokemon centre in this little mountain town.  
  
Ash almost dragging himself along the ground, turned to Brock, "Hey Brock, where's the pokemon centre in this town?"  
  
"It's strange, but this town isn't even on the map."  
  
Misty piped in "Maybe this is a new town, and they haven't marked it on the map yet."  
  
"Well, this map is fairly new Misty, and by the looks of this town its fairly old. So that still doesn't explain why this town isn't on the map-"  
  
Ash was at the point of exhaustion, "Who cares whether it's on the map or not! I'm tired and hungry, are you coming Pikachu?"  
  
"Pi-ka"  
  
"Right that's settled, LET'S GO FIND THAT POKEMON CENTER!"  
  
Ash conveniently forgot his lack of energy and ran off into the town with Pikachu bounding beside him. Brock and Misty had no choice but to follow screaming out 'WAIT FOR US!!!'  
  
When they got to the town, they stood in awe of how neat, and perfect it seemed. Everything was washed, and although ancient looking seemed almost brand new. However no one was in sight, no one running home, no one working, no one talking in the streets.no body. The companions decided to disregard this and continue their way to finding a pokemon centre. But after a solid half hour of searching, they couldn't find it anywhere. It was dark, and they needed somewhere to stay.  
  
Ash heard distant giggling from somewhere, but ignored it. Then he heard it again, from another direction.  
  
"Do you guys hear that?"  
  
"Hear what?" Misty asked.  
  
Ash strained his ears for the mysterious noise, but couldn't hear it anymore. However he was so concentrated on finding it he didn't notice the woman who had just turned up in front of him. Ash almost back flipped on the spot, but instead just fell over. Upon looking up at the woman, well whom he thought was a woman but now looked like a young lady, he discovered she was extremely beautiful. She had long flowing black hair, tied loosely with a red ribbon. Her eyes were a deep blue, with a hint of purple like the surrounding mountains. But before he could say anything, Brock had already intercepted and was holding her hands telling how beautiful she was. Almost immediately was Misty by his side, dragging him away by the ear.  
  
"Brock, will you ever learn!" Misty leaned in closer to Brock so only he could hear, "Plus I don't trust this girl, there's something 'peculiar' about her."  
  
The lady bent over to help Ash get up, "I'm sorry, did I scare you. It seems that you have no place to stay, yes?" Ash nodded, mesmerised by the lady's beauty, "Well you can come and stay at my house with my sisters." She smiled, and began to lead the way to her house.  
  
Brock screamed, "SISTERS!!! SHE HAS SISTERS!!!!!"  
  
Brock and Ash followed the lady almost like puppies; Misty however was hesitant of this strange lady. Call it women's intuition, but Misty just wasn't getting good vibes from this woman. Reluctantly she followed the strange lady down the pristine streets of the quiet town, right up to a large cream coloured house, decorated with colourful flowers illuminated by garden lights.  
  
They entered the hallway of the house, and were immediately greeted by the smell of warm home cooking. Misty realising just how hungry she was, decided to let her intuitions drop, she was probably just over reacting anyway.  
  
Two beautiful girls entered the hall and escorted them to the dinner table. They had to be twins, as their appearance was absolutely identical. Both had ruby red hair, and dazzling ice blue eyes. They were both the same height and build and even, it seemed, had the same voice tone as well.  
  
The travellers looked upon the feast with dreamy eyes and drooling mouths, foods of all kinds were laid out on the table. Truly a feast fit for a king. Three places were set at the table, all though obviously there were more than three in the household. It was almost as if this whole dinner had been pre planned for their arrival, however the twins looked a slight disappointed when Misty took a seat and Pikachu had to share seats with Ash. After they had eaten, they were each shown to a room, each room being exactly the same as the other. Cream with large four post beds and crimson red drapes hanging from them. The bed linen was white silk, with purple silk pillows.  
  
"It's almost like a hotel." Misty stated.  
  
The girls leading them seemed to ignore Misty's remark, in fact they seemed to almost ignore that she was even there. The twins directed them towards the baths, conveniently forgetting to get Misty a towel or even telling her where to go. She was left to figure it out by herself as Ash and Brock and Pikachu were carted off by another sister towards the baths she had made ready for them.  
  
"Gee, real hospitality. The meal was great, but I'm not even sure they wanted me eating it. They don't even want to know that I'm here, I mean even Pikachu got a towel. Guess I'll just have to find my way around myself."  
  
Meanwhile in the baths Pikachu Ash and Brock were relaxing in each of their own rather large bathtubs.  
  
"These sisters are really nice, and this place is fantastic!"  
  
Ash opened one eye lazily, "Yeah, that food was great and this bath is so relaxing."  
  
"Pi-ka."  
  
The brunette sister who had made the baths for them walked in, Ash and Brock quickly ducked for cover under the bubbles, both turning red as tomatoes.  
  
"Oh don't mind me, I just wanted to know if you three needed anything. Back massage, scrub you're back?"  
  
Ash and Brock, even redder now, shook the heads from side to side very quickly. The brunette girl smiled and left the room.  
  
"Phew, guess that one doesn't know much about modesty."  
  
"You said it Brock, I'm just gonna go back to relaxing, and hope she doesn't come in again."  
  
Misty was walking from hall to hall, not quite sure where she was anymore as each of them were the exact same cream colour.  
  
"This place is a labyrinth! I'll die before I can have a bath. I guess I'll try this door. What? It's jammed.hmmm." Misty looked around her to see if anyone was nearby. With returned curiosity of just what was so peculiar about this family of beautiful girls, she proceeded to push the door open.  
  
Finally the door came free, only to reveal and old closet with dingy red walls and carpet. Disappointed, Misty was about to leave the closet until she noticed something scrawled on the walls.  
  
"Of beauty, beware."  
  
Puzzled by this, Misty didn't notice the black haired sister standing behind her. Misty shrieked and hit her head against the back of the closet.  
  
"I'm sorry, I seem to be getting into a habit of doing that. My sisters forgot to give you a towel so here you go. Oh and the bathrooms down the hall on your left." She smiled at Misty with an almost believable smile, yet it still felt false.  
  
Misty not wanting to attract attention to her suspicion took the towel graciously and walked down the hall. She peeked back around the corner to see the black haired lady carefully locking the door to the red closet and walking away nervously.  
  
"Something's fishy here, I've got to find out what. I don't think Ash and Brock are going to be much help, they're too busy mesmerised by these witches. No it's up to me! But first, man do I need a bath."  
  
Misty headed towards the bath, with the slightly eerie feeling of eyes watching her. She could also swear she heard giggling in the distance. But she was tired, so she passed it off as mind tricks and decided to go and enjoy her bath.  
  
Somewhere in a dark room, a voice speaks out from a glowing entity in the centre. "She's too close, I don't like it.. "  
  
Review and tell me if you want me to finish this, my friend thinks its crap. which it probably is I don't know I'm half asleep -_- Oh and everytime you see a new sentence without a capital letter, it's coz I've written a . . . (if it didn't show up again it's a 'dot dot dot') and they just didn't work on this site for some reason By issekiwa 


	2. In a Daze

Mountain Town Part 2  
  
Misty walked into the bathroom; a steaming hot bath was prepared for her with incense filling the air. Surrounding the bath were an arrangement of perfumed oils and bath salts, all of which smelt absolutely wonderful. The water was a delicate pink, with rose petals floating around and a sweet smelling aroma arising from it. Misty looked around and decided that perhaps these sisters weren't against her after all. She smiled, slipped off her clothes, and put one foot into the bath. With a loud scream she quickly wrenched her foot back out. The bath was almost at boiling point. She quickly began running the cold tap, placing her throbbing foot under it's cool flow. Once enough cold water was in the bath, she timidly stepped into the bath. It was perfect now she could finally relax.  
  
Slipping into the warm water, Misty felt her muscles relax, and her body go all tingly. The perfume rising from the water was delicious, almost intoxicating. She thought this was the best time to think about what had happened today, but couldn't concentrate on anything else other than relaxing in her bath. Eventually she gave up, and slipped further into the water.  
  
The air around her was hazy, and started to glow pink. Soon all the surrounding walls seemed to be melting together, swirling into colourful patterns. Misty tried to sit up, but found herself dizzy, and slowly floating back down to her original position. The bottles of aromatherapy oils and bath salts began to dance around the room, while she herself seemed to be floating on a fluffy cloud. How relaxing she thought this all was. She looked at her hand, it seemed to blur and misshapen then blur back to normal again. She looked up, and saw that the pink steam rising from the bath had formed a sort of face, one that she found familiar. She thought about it for a while, and realised it was the black haired sister. She smiled hazily at the figure in the steam, and waved childishly.  
  
"Hello Misty." The figure spoke warmly.  
  
Misty tried to say something back, but could only manage a range of sluggish sounds.  
  
"How are you feeling? Relaxed? That's good. I just wanted to say, we all love having you here, so don't feel unwanted. You're our special guest, and we'd do anything to make your stay comfortable." The figure smiled, "You just relax and let all your worries run from your mind." The steam dissipated, and Misty waved and mumbled a 'bye bye' to it.  
  
All the walls stopped swirling, and melded together to form a blurry cream colour. Misty blinked and found herself in her cream coloured room. She blinked again, feeling a little disorientated at the fact that she some how wound up in her room. To top it off she was tucked into her bed. The dizziness returned, and she lay back down on the satin pillows and decided to sleep.  
  
That night Misty had haunting dreams, she kept dreaming of walking into the red closet, reading the scrawled writing "Of beauty, beware." only on closer inspection I seemed to be written in blood. And the black haired lady with her sisters kept taking her away to a dark room, leaving her their for what seemed eternity until her dream started to repeat itself again. Tossing and turning and perspiring heavily, Misty began tearing at her sheets and kicking walls. Through what seemed hours of endless torment, Misty opened her eyes to see Pikachu on her chest, and Ash holding a wet towel dampening her forehead.  
  
"I tried to wake you, but you just kept thrashing around. What's the matter?"  
  
Misty was about to say something, but thought it best not too. Ash wouldn't understand what she was going on about in the first place, and she thought it best to keep it a secret. If she wanted to do further investigating, she had to. Next time she was going to be careful to avoid the sisters, especially the dark haired one.  
  
"Um, nothing just a really bad dream.I don't want to talk about. Ok?"  
  
"Sure, that's fine Misty. You get some rest, Jessabelle will check if your ok in the morning."  
  
"Who's Jessabelle?"  
  
"The dark haired one, I'm tired and you most likely are too. So let's get some sleep."  
  
Misty nodded and rolled over, she hadn't realised till now but none of the sisters had actually formally introduced themselves. Not to her at least. She still felt somewhat left out by this. Why hadn't they introduced themselves to her, but she suddenly felt a jerk inside her and she felt all relaxed, warm and fuzzy. Things started to go hazy and dark. Soon she was fast asleep.  
  
The next morning Misty awoke to find the house totally deserted, with a note left on the kitchen table reading. "Misty we've gone for a hike through the valley with Jessabelle and her sisters. We thought it best for you to get some more rest after last night. Catch you later, Ash"  
  
Misty was somewhat disappointed that she didn't get to go to, if not suspicious, but also happy that this gave her the perfect change to sneak around the house unnoticed. Skipping breakfast she began her investigation straight away.  
  
Misty found her way back to the red closet, this time it wasn't locked and there was no writing on the walls. She could have sworn that it was the same closet, but figured it couldn't be. So she moved on down the hall. Suddenly something seemed to jerk at her, almost wrenching her off her feet. Regaining her balance, Misty looked around apprehensively. Nothing was to be seen, except that a distant giggling could be heard. From what direction she couldn't tell. She moved back towards the closet. She looked inside and noticed on the wall something else had been written.  
  
"Follow those you can't see."  
  
"What the heck is that supposed to mean?" Misty looked puzzled at the writing, what could it possibly mean. And how could you follow those you can't see? Misty heard the giggling again, this time a lot closer and seemed to be coming from behind her. She shot around to discover nothing. The whole situation was starting to freak her out; she began to run down the hall, conscious that something was following her. She ran to a window, and saw that Ash and the others were returning. But she noticed that there was only Jessabelle and the twins. Where had the other sister gone? Suddenly somebody had grabbed her from behind, the next thing she knew she was getting dizzy and everything was becoming dark as she was slowly dragged off somewhere.  
  
Well still haven't finished yet, but I think that it's developing into something fairly interesting. The next chapter should be the finale, so make sure you read it to find out what happens.  
  
By issekiwa 


	3. Torture

Torture  
  
Ash and Brock entered the house, Ash wanted to go upstairs and see if Misty was feeling better but was quickly interrupted by the brunette sister coming down the stairs, who said that Misty had come down with a fever. She also mentioned that Misty wouldn't be coming to dinner and that no one must go to visit her because she needs her rest. Ash found this a little odd, as all that had happened last night was a bad dream, but he had no reason to doubt the girl so he went upstairs with Brock to clean up before dinner was served.  
  
"Poor Misty, don't you think so Ash?"  
  
"Yeah, it seems a bit odd though, I didn't no you could get sick from bad dreams. I wish I could go visit her and cheer her up. But I guess what she needs most right now is rest."  
  
Brock nodded solemnly and they both went and headed off to the bathroom.  
  
After their baths, Ash said that he was going to lie down for a while because he was tired from the hike they did that day. Brock went off with the twin's and Jessabelle to help prepare the dinner. So Ash was left alone in his room with Pikachu, who was quietly resting on one of the silk pillows. Ash thought that he should visit Misty before he has a rest, she couldn't possibly be still resting and she hadn't seen anyone since the night before.  
  
Ash quietly tiptoed out of the room, closing the door behind him making sure not to disturb Pikachu. Once out of the room, he went off to visit Misty in her room. When he was half way there, the brunette sister appeared out of nowhere and stopped him.  
  
"What are you doing Ash?" She asked almost accusingly, yet still innocent at the same time.  
  
"I was." Ash realised that the brunette sister was the one who told them not to visit Misty, he thought it best not to reveal that he was going to see her, "Umm, going to the toilet before I have a rest."  
  
"Well ok Ash, but you do know the toilet's the other way.next to the bathroom?"  
  
"Oh yeah, right, I guess I'm just really tired." Ash made a weak laugh and promptly turned in the opposite direction and walked off somewhat over emphasised. Turning a corner in the hallway, Ash turned around to discover that the brunette sister was no longer there, so he continued on his way to visit Misty.  
  
As he headed towards her room, he found the house started to seem less clean, are darker at this end. He disregarded this and walked up to Misty's door. He reached to turn the brass knob, but something seemed to brush past his mind. He hesitated and went to grab the doorknob again, but again he felt something only this time a lot stronger. Ash backed away from the door, not really knowing what to think. After staring at it for a while, he decided to try again. This time it felt as if something was physically stopping him from turning the knob. He pulled his hand back and saw that there were red marks on it. A little freaked out by this he started to slowly inch his way back along the cream walls. Staring at the door it seemed to speak out at him in a hollow ghostly voice in all corners of his brain. Echoing back and forth, "Waaaatch, ooout." At this point he decided to turn and run. Suddenly a snake appeared on the floor out of nowhere. Before he could turn to avoid it, it lashed out at him. Stumbling back everything went black.  
  
Ash woke in a cold sweat, his sheets sprawled across his bed and his pillow soaked with perspiration. Frantically he looked around the room. Pikachu was exactly where he left him and still asleep. Absently rubbing his hand, Ash didn't know whether what had just happened was real or not. Had he really gone to visit Misty, and did everything start going all weird? Did that snake really exist, and why did his hand hurt. Then he remembered the doorknob, when something was trying to stop him from turning it. Remembered looking at his hand, all red. And the snake, it had lashed out at his leg, but as he moved the sheet away to look.no evidence of that happening was there. Looking again at his hand, he realised it wasn't sore. Feeling very confused, Ash lay back down. Then again realising that his pillow was totally soaked, decided he should probably get up. He looked at the clock next to his bed, it said 7 pm. There was a quiet knock on the door, and the brunette sister came in and announced dinner.  
  
Ash got up, still feeling a little woozy, put on his jacket and gently woke Pikachu. Downstairs, at the dinner table, Ash realised that Misty wasn't there, as the brunette sister had said before. He was disappointed he hadn't had a chance to see her, she must be really sick that she had been a whole day bed ridden.  
  
Ash looked on at the food, seeing Brock in the kitchen he assumed that he must have cooked it but it seemed nothing like Brock would ever cook. He gave Brock a questioning look.  
  
"Well you see, I offered to help, but they just simply refused. So I've spent the whole time reading cook books of theirs, they have some great recipes that I want to try sometime."  
  
Looking back at the food, Ash began to drool over how delicious it all smelt, no matter how strange it looked. Joined by his Pikachu, they both began to dive into the banquet of food laid out before them. But as Ash devoured away, he kept feeling something nagging on the edge of his consciousness. He struggled to grasp what it was, but failing to do so concentrated once again on filling his stomach.  
  
Somewhere in a dark room, Misty awoke to the stench of a dank and dirty room. She looked around, although it didn't do her any good. The thick darkness of the room was impenetrable, and the stench made the air thick and heavy in her lungs. Wheezing and coughing from either lack of oxygen or the feral air around her, Misty crawled around the room trying to find some sort of way out. However the room didn't have walls, or even a floor for that matter. It was like some sort of void, in the middle of nowhere.literally. She could hear a faint sound coming from what seemed all around her. It was the same giggling she heard before. Only this time it was getting louder, and more defined. Soon Misty realised that it was the voice of a little girl.  
  
The voice started to echo, filling every nook and cranny of Misty's brain. It was becoming unbearable. Misty fell to the non-floor, clutching her head screaming, 'STOP STOP!'  
  
Then there was silence.  
  
Misty dropped her hands. Sweat dripped from her face. She now realised how hot it was in the void. But where was the heat emanating from? Wherever it was, it was forming a thick choking blanket around her, closing in. She couldn't breathe. She felt herself gasping for air. Each breath became harder and harder. She started getting dizzy and heavy headed, if it had not been for that fact everything surrounding her was black, she would have noticed her vision becoming blurred. Lying on the floor, with visions of everything that had happened lately swirling around in her brain, she slowly slipped in and out of consciousness.  
  
This was the end she knew it. Her body couldn't physically or mentally take much more of this. The voice stirred the heavy silence, only instead of giggling it was screaming. A bone-chilling, high-pitched scream. Once again clawing at her ears Misty tried to shut it out, but it was no use. It was inside her head, attacking her from all sides. The screaming turned into a maniacal laugh, not the laugh of a little girl but that laugh of someone so old they seemed ancient. It had a snakish tone to it, with a spice of evil in its harsh voice. Misty couldn't take it. Screaming and kicking at the air, she cried out for help only to realise her voice could not be heard. Her throat was sore, but no sound was produced. Tears streaming from her eyes, she rolled around clawing at her face and arms. Slowly the world around her blurred and twisted. Time had no meaning the torture was endless. She just wanted to lie down and die. She kept crying, "make it stop, make it stop." The evil snake voice imitated her, "make it stop, make it stop." Reaching out into all ends of her mind, warping and bending her sense of reality.  
  
When would it stop?  
  
When.  
  
MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! I lied when I said that this chapter would be the last, so sue me. 


	4. And So, It Ends

And So, It Ends.  
  
After Brock, Ash and Pikachu had eaten their fill of the delicious food, they started to feel very tired. They passed it off on eating too much, but none of them could hold back the urge to close their eyes and sleep. Soon their eyes became too heavy, and they succumbed to sleeping. The last thing Ash saw, was a smirk on all the sisters' faces, but unable to keep awake couldn't think further of it.  
  
During this sleep, none of them dreamt anything. It was a deep, thick sleep of total darkness. Unaffected by the dream world, impenetrable by the real world. It wasn't really sleeping, but more of an unconscious dream. No idea of time, and now way out of the sleeping coma, Ash and his friends slipped further into the thick black of the strange world surrounding them unaware of what was really going on.  
  
Sighing and quivering violently on the ground, Misty wiped the blood from her face and arms that hadn't dried yet. Had it been light in the void, you could see the red scars across her face and arms, her ears red aflame from the burning atmosphere. Silence had fallen in the void for some time now, although Misty was not quite sure how long, as time didn't seem to exist here. However, it had given her time to recollect what thoughts her brain could hold onto. Memories of events that had happened flitted across her brain, painfully she struggled to catch them, make some sense of what was going on. Why she was being tortured. Very faintly she heard the sound of dripping water. She couldn't tell where it was coming from, but the sound reminded her of something. She clenched her fists, and screwed her eyes shut in hope to help her remember. She saw steam. pink water. bottles. swirling walls. Putting all these images together, her memories started flooding back to her mind. After what she'd just been through, she realised now that it was the sisters' doing. As well as the whole bathroom thing, they did that too. To stop her from trying to discover what they were up to. But what were they up to? It obviously had to be something they'd do anything to stop people from knowing. But now there was nothing she could do, she was in the middle of no where, and in no physical condition to get out of there.  
  
Off in the distance she could hear the sound of a hollow, ghostly voice. It wasn't quite audible, but it was trying to tell her something. Straining her ears, she tried as hard as she could to hear what it was saying.  
  
"Follow those you can't see."  
  
It was saying the same thing that was written on the wall. Only this time, it sort of made some sense. In this void, Misty couldn't see a thing. However, she could hear everything. enough to send her to the brink of her sanity. Although this time it was a different voice, and it was only coming from one direction, rather than from all around her. Swaying her head from side to side, Misty tried to determine just where exactly the voice was coming from as it chanted away. Moving towards where she thought it was, the air became lighter and cooler. She swore that she also felt a faint breeze against her cheek, just for a moment. She was sure she was going in the right direction now. Slowly the void became lighter, so Misty began to move faster. Still following the voice she felt her heart pounding with excitement. Finally she was going to get out of this hellhole. The voice calling to her was getting louder and louder, each time sounding more human rather than a ghostly hollow echo. Almost running now, Misty didn't notice that figure that stepped out in front of her. With a loud SMACK, Misty fell crashing to the ground. Looking up, she couldn't tell which one, but she knew it was a sister. Her teeth glaring a bright white through the dimness, but her teeth were pointy, and her tongue was forked and flickering. Misty backed away in disgust. She was in trouble now, the voice that was calling her had stopped, and she was trapped with this snaky sister. There was no way out.  
  
Ash awoke sore and stiff, he went to rub his eyes, but then realised he couldn't. Try as he might, he couldn't break free from what. He looked down and realised he was tied up in ropes. Tied with him were Pikachu and Brock, who were already awake. However, both of them were gagged.  
  
"What the heck is going on! Who are you?" Ash cried out to the three strange creatures surrounding them. Their scaly bodies writhing and coiling, their tales impatiently swishing back and forth. Ash looked up at the hideous green monster, and suddenly didn't feel so confident anymore.  
  
"Why Ash, don't you remember usssss?" The largest of the three spoke out, "It'sss Jessssable, can't you tell? It just so happens that me and my sisters are pokemon."  
  
Ash flinched back in disgust, how could such vile a creature be Jessabelle. By the looks of the other two snakes, they must be the twins. But where was the fourth.for that matter where was Misty? He knew it, she wasn't sick at all. These freaky weirdo reject pokemon had done something to her.  
  
"Where's Misty, what have you done to her!" this provoked muffled responses from Brock and Pikachu.  
  
"Well, let'sss jusssst sssssay she'ssss been taken care of. Anyway, I'd be much more worried about yoursssself at the moment." She trailed off into a maniacal laugh.  
  
"I said, where's Misty!"  
  
The snake gave a large sigh and walked to the middle of the room where there was a claw shaped staff with a ball of white energy inside. Waving her hand over the staff, the image of a girl in a dark void appeared in everybody's minds. She was screaming and clawing at her face and arms. Her screams were so heart wrenching, Ash was trying to fight back tears for her. Then the image changed to a figure in a dim room, still and motionless on the floor. No sound, nothing. Ash couldn't hold it neither could Brock nor Pikachu. They all knew it was Misty; they all began to cry for the loss of their companion. The snake flashed a wicked grin at Ash. Ash started to struggle with all his might against his restraints, wanting to lash out at the evil creature that tortured Misty so horribly. But found to his disappointment, that it was no use. They were stuck, and there was no one to help us.  
  
The snake sisters began to advance on Ash and his friends hungrily, with saliva dripping from their fangs. Ash's eyes widened it horror, they were going to EAT them! The three companions started struggling to move away from the advancing monstrosities. The lead snake was one inch away from Ash; he cringed away from the foul smelling breath of the vile creature, and prepared for the worst. He could feel it's hot breath flowing over him. It was so feral, it seemed to almost melt the skin right off his face. The snake opened its mouth wide, pulled its head back to strike. Suddenly there was a loud BANG! The creature screamed in pain.  
  
Ash opened one eye and looked up. The snake was gone. He looked at his feet to see a coiled lump of green scales lying motionless on the floor. The twin snakes spun around to meet the enemy but found no one. Looking frantically from left to right they tried to make sense of the situation. Another shot was fired, and one of the snakes slumped to the floor. Leaving the one snake by itself, it freaked and began to slither away as fast as it could. Not fast enough, with a large booming sound, the snake was blown from the air and sent flying out of the room creating a whole in the roof and letting sunshine flood into the area.  
  
Squinting in pain from the light, Ash tried to look around the room to see what had destroyed the snake sisters. He saw a blurry figure standing on a rock, with a taller figure next to it. One had blazing red hair, the other pure white. Focussing on them, he screamed with delight to discover the red haired figure was Misty; she had a red bandanna tied around her head, and a shotgun over her shoulder. Her face and arms were red and bloody, but it was Misty none the less. Misty quickly ran over to them with a knife, and promptly began to cut their ropes.  
  
"Oh Misty, we thought you were dead! We saw it and everything, you were screaming in pain.then . then you were on the floor, motionless."  
  
Misty gave Ash a smirk, "Oh yeah, that was me screaming all right. But last time I checked it wasn't me lying on the floor, rather that brunette sister or should I say ugly snake."  
  
"But.but how" Ash asked in confusion as Misty was taking off Brock and Pikachu's gags.  
  
"Yeah Misty, how'd you manage to get out, and get a shotgun no less. And who's that guy over there?"  
  
"Well it's a long story, so I'll cut off the first half of when we got here. I'll just start with the void. As you already know, I was being tortured in their it was unbearable. Hence the scars on my face and arms. Then I heard a voice calling to me, I started to follow it. I got faster and faster as the voice got louder. I was concentrating so much on finding a way out, that I didn't notice the brunette sister step out in front of me. She caught my off guard I admit, and at that point I was down for the count. She was about to attack me when out of nowhere; this guy showed up, "Misty pointed behind her where the old man with white hair was gingerly climbing down from the ledge he was on. "He came up and clobbered her from behind with this weirdo light ball thing. And that was who you saw lying on the ground."  
  
"But Misty, that doesn't explain how you got here, who he is, and why the heck you have a shotgun."  
  
The old man stepped forward, "Perhaps I should explain this. I was in fact that voice that Misty was trying to find; the moment you travellers got here I've been trying to warn you about these evil creatures. I concentrated mostly on Misty, as these pokemon have no power over women. However I did manage to get to you once, Ash, remember the door?" Ash looked down at his hand and nodded. " I tried to warn you, but you just wouldn't listen. These pokemon have the power to make a dream world, a gigantic illusion if you like, they use it to lure male travellers into this cavern so then they can devour them."  
  
Brock looked disgusted; to think he thought these women were beautiful.  
  
"And I don't really have a shotgun, this man was able to control the snake sister illusion, and he just created one." She smiled and giggled.  
  
"And he just created the bandanna too?"  
  
"Well, it goes with the look, OK!"  
  
Ash put his hands up in defence as if to say he didn't do anything, but Misty knew he was trying to imply something.  
  
Brock joined the conversation again, "But how do you know so much about these pokemon? And how could you tap into their illusion?"  
  
"Well, you see I am the creator of these creatures. An experiment gone wrong I'm afraid. I am in fact over centuries old, and every day I feel the guilt of creating such monstrosities that go round devouring people, and that's a lot of days. Their power of illusion isn't actually there's alone. It's my power as they are linked to me. That is how I could tap into it, as technically on some subconscious level I'm the one who created all of this."  
  
Brock noticed something, "But if you're linked to them, doesn't that mean-"  
  
The old man cut in, as if he already knew what Brock was going to say, " Yes, soon this illusion will dissipate, along with me. And before you say anything about it, I am glad of this. Over the centuries they have created so much havoc that I think that its time I payed for it, it's also liberation for me. Life is just not a joy anymore; I think I've lived my quota." He smiled as he began to fade away. Everyone was at the point of tears, but they all felt it was for the best, its what the old man wanted anyway.  
  
Misty was the saddest of all, this man had helped her help her friends and saved them all. So what if he created them, he was still a sweet old man in her eyes.  
  
"Thankyou for everything!" Misty cried out as she waved a goodbye to the disappearing man. The bandanna and shotgun had disappeared, and the dead snake pokemon had also left the room. Seeing no point to hang around longer, the three trainers and Pikachu decided best to move on.  
  
Each trainer left the townless valley with the experience weighing heavy on their minds, but looked brightly towards the future of their life, which they now respected more than ever.  
  
Ta da! It's finally over, I hoped you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing, this was a real fun fan fic to write.  
  
issekiwa 


End file.
